in many leaues whereof euery one carrieth his seuerall latitude but after an ancient fashion with one folded about a rouler in manner of a Pedegree The Heauens sayth Esay 30. shall bee folden like a booke that is like such a booke Now whether this volume noted a cause of wrath some Catalogue of hereticall positions quickly dispersable throughout the world suppose for example the Councell of Trent or if you will the Romish Canon Law which iustifies men notwithstanding theft and periurie or else an effect of wrath a denuntiation of some speedie iudgement from Heauen against theft and periurie the number of Interpreters is more equally diuided then the weight of their interpretation Farre bee it from my simplicitie to censure or restraine their spirits who collect hence higher mysteries by faire probabilities but in the beaten path according to the letter This is the curse that goeth ouer the whole earth Rabbi Dauid conceiueth in regard of vengeance written both within without the curse of the thiefe appearing on the one side the curse of the false swearer on the other Yea the originall word in the third verse whose doubtfull signification ministred the chiefe cause of different construction is translated by none of the worst Hebricians not after the metaphoricall sense shall bee pronounced innocent but shall bee cut off according to the sence naturall Naturally the word doth import a kinde of riddance no kinde of acquittance a desolation rather then an absolution And that I may not holde you long in the first entrie come neere and see the whole phrase of my Theme of it selfe directing vs throughout vnto matter penall supposing that which all threatnings doe suppose matter criminall Where since your religious attention stands arriued past all danger of farther difficulties bee pleased I beseech you to survey First The publication of the curse I will bring it forth saith the Lord of Hoasts Secondly The surprisall or inuasion And it shall enter into the house of the theefe and of him that falsely sweareth by my Name Thirdly The continuance and it shall remaine in the midst of the house Fourthly The effect or consequent of it and shall consume it with the timber therof and the stones therof Of all which as God shall enable in order and first of the publication I will bring it forth 〈◊〉 When Mercie hath almost spent her spirits in words of forewarning prophecie Iustice ariseth to gird her selfe for workes of reuenging prouidence so the curse which was published before by reuelation shall now be published in execution in execution certaine and infallible For the zeale of the Lord of Hostes shall bring it forth Bring it forth Therefore your eyes shall behold an execution visible and exemplarie First admit in sobrietie the ratification of this extraordinarie curse for a part of his counsaile then followeth an absolute infallibilitie My counsaile shall stand and I will doe whatsoeuer I will Isaiah 46.10 Who hath resisted his will wee were best say None without assignation of seeming instances lest Augustine in the hundreth Chapter of his Enchiridion presently reply Hoc ipso quod contra voluntatem Dei fecerunt de ipsis fact a est voluntas Dei in that wherein the will of God was not done by them the will of GOD was done vpon them Such an vniuersall Soueraignetie clearely perceiued in the Lord of Hostes might well moue Saint Iames by occasion of certaâ—ne Marchants in his time who so deliberated aforehand of their future imployment that they scarce once looked vpwards to teach all humane language a most necessarie Parenthesis If the Lord will Iames 4.15 or if we liue wee will due this or that Which when a King of this Land 't was William Rusus sometimes omitted threatning to make a bridge from the rockes of Wales ouer into Ireland a Prince there vnderstanding of his irrespectiue speech boldly professed he neuer feared that mans comming who would so presumptuously determine in a confidence of his owne strength without due reference vnto Gods determination None but the King of Kings hath right vnto the stile Imperiall I will or will not without all limitation because his will and power bee matches only his decrees are alwayes attended with answerable successe of euents vneuitable Secondly forasmuch as the secret things belong to the Lord Deut. 29.29 but the things reuealed belong to vs and our children affoord this curse the common acception of a doome which proceedeth from God none otherwise then as a meanes of bringing his counsell to passe being pronounced out of mens desert and morall disposition yet can it brooke no other condition saue the condition of mens repentance If this Nation against whom I haue pronounced turne from their wickednesse I will repent of the plague I thought to bring vpon them Ierem. 18.8 Properly God is not as man that hee should repent 1. Sam. 15. but speakes as man Nouit Dominus aliquando mutare sententiam nunquam nouit mutare consilium God changeth his sentence he changeth not his counsell Nay so farre are the alterations of any or all inferior things from fastning vpon him but the least imputation of mutabilitie that if any second causes exigent doe cease or change that verie cessation or mutation is from the first causes intendement But in case they persist in their impenitencie the consumption decreed shall ouerflow with righteousnesse Isay 10.12 Then to close vp the passage or hinder the course of diuine iustice by mortall meanes will bee more impossible then for a man to stoppe the violent inundation of the Sea with his armes or to force lightning and beate it backe againe into the cloudes with his breath for the Lord of Hoasts will bring it forth Luke 12. There is nothing couered that shall not be reuealed neyther hid that shall not be knowne sooner or later the madnesse of Hypocrites shall bee made euident if not in the sinne as Iannes and Iambres furie yet as both Dauids and Iezabels 2. Sam. 12. in the punishment They did it secretly saith God but I will doe this thing before all Israel and before the Sunne so shall the Name of the Lord of Hoasts be famous in euery sinners infamie There is another vision in the seuenth of Daniel very neere allied to this in signification where it is said A fierie streame issued out and came forth from the ancient of dayes thousand thousands ministred vnto him and tenne thousand thousands stood before him That streame was this flying Booke and that Ancient of dayes is heere the Lord of Hoasts I will bring it forth saith the Lord of Hoasts A Meditation whereunto their hearts of all this great assembly should in reason lay principall claime who take place neerest on earth to the Lord of Hostes called after his owne Name seated on his owne throne armed euery way with his owne authoritie Bring foorth O yee sonnes of the most High bring forth your fathers iudgement in imitation of
with the same tenor of voyce and countenance 't was presently conceited that certainely this was a noble and Diuine kinde of Philosophie which brought men to such a blessed temper of patience This might haue gonefor good preaching though the Preacher had beene speechlesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A dumme worke Nazian is better then a word not brought to effect Not all the points of his Sermon wrought so powerfully for the conuersion of that rude people as that one point which was no point of his Sermon Had Spaine and Rome out of their pretended zeale sent none but such Fernandos abroad wisedome should not haue beene condemned where it was not heard because they were children of the rocks and mountaines not wisedomes children that profered it heauen it selfe should not haue beene despised for feare of their companie that did promise it And would not Christians thinke we haue made the like refusall which of vs being inuited at this solemnitie by the most curious entertainer would not inuite himselfe another way vpon the lest notice that Medusa were the Cup-bearer or Cloacina the Caruer Likewise in spirituall things all mens meditations cannot separate and abstract a doctrine only running vpon what was taught some receiue what they receiue in the concrete with a reference to the person of the teacher which was the reason why Annius Viterbienses a preaching Frier set out his books vnder the name of Philo and Metasthenes men more passable and plausible Great is the preuaylement of authoritie Basil thought Athenasius his voyce did still ring in his eares 2. Tim. 3.14 and S. Paul exhorteth Timothie to continue in the things which he had heard with this Memorandum knowing of whom thou hast learned them but when your credit is once crackt as good your braine were crazed treate you may of heauen and hell vntill Doomesday truth wil be truth in your mouths but such a testimonie as Cassandraes prophecie was Tuncetiam fatis aperit Cassandra futuris Ora Deiiussu non vnquam credita Cassandra opens her mouth and by Gods appointment sheweth what shall come to passe but no bodie beleeues her Mistake me not for a transgressor of any common place Holinesse is no necessary note of a Church no necessarie note of a Minister Mens personal offences suspend not the power of the holy Ghost directly but yet they doe suspend it occassonally by simple mens infirmitie who were not simple men if they were onely led by sound arguments therefore you must deale with your charge as God did with his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He bare with their maners in the wildernesse Acts 13.18 His life is bad therefore his doctrine false sounds like an harsh non sequitur it followes not in the schooles yet in Court and country a thousand times better our good liues should preuent it then our great learning bee driuen afterwards to confute it Bee therefore carefull my brethren that whilst you preach to others your selues be not reprooued I meane not as the people would haue reprooued Christ Mark 1. Physition heale thy selfe But as Christ reproued the deuill not onely because hee would conceale his Diuinitie but because hee liked not as Chrysostome thinketh such an impure instrument 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hold thy peace keepe thy breath to coole thy thy torment Non tali auxilio nec confessoribus ist is Christus eget This is no such helpe nor these Confessors such as Christ hath neede of Psalm 50. What hast thou to doe to declare mine ordinances that thou shouldest take my Couenant in thy mouth seeing thou hatest to bee reformed Wisedome is iustified of her Children Saint Lukes interpretation with addition of a particle vniuersall doth enlarge my ground Of all her Children Rom. 10. No sooner with the heart man beleeueth vnto righteousnesse but immediatly with the mouth man confesseth vnto Saluation whereof among many more you may find a proper Hypothesis 1. Cor. 14.25 where the new conuert fals downe on his face worships God and sayes plainely to the Prophets God is in you indeed nor is this iustification seene onely before her friends but in a more peremptory stile to the face of her enemies Acts 4.20 We cannot but speake the things which we haue seene and heard wee cannot not that it was absolutely impossible but in two of those senses at the least borrowed by some Interpreters out of Nazianzens fourth oration de Theologia For an outward incongruity of reason or law idpossumus quod iure possumus Wee can doe that which we may do by law and an inward resolution of the will founded vpon that outward incongruity working necessarily so farre forth as it is habituall this is the flame of the Prophets fire in his bones possessing all the parts of all the powers of body and soule A loue as strong as death nay stronger moripossum tacere non possum I may dye but I cannot hold my peace Therefore when the Papists proudly demaund among other circumstances what Bishop or Doctor or Martyr or Writer resisted their innouations stand not perplexed with Eliah his tentation as in the houre of the power of darknesse For though Popery crept in part after part in euery part by gentle degrees in euery degree with pretence of truth and when it preuailed aduanced the banners of her painted ceremonies with such a mighty noise of Excommunications that a poore mans tale could no more bee heard then the humming of a Bee in a clap of thunder yet Wisdome then left not her selfe without witnesses the particular Authors who mention particular Aduersaries of particular errors are infinite the answere is there to be found where the title doth promise it in that booke which Illyricus hath compiled Catalogustestium veritatis Here I should exhort al hearers not to be ashamed of that good name by which they are called Christians are alwaies Protestāts Only that none of our own body may misconster my labor for the report of an absent estate or mistake himselfe for one like the Queene of Sheba farre off pardon me I beseech you a little while I now conclude all at home for in this place aboue other places 1. Cor. 2.6 We speak the wisdome of God among them that are perfect if not perfect in all degrees of knowledge like Wisdoms champions yet perfect in all parts of knowledge like Wisdoms children Euery man hath his proper gift of God 1. Cor. 7. one after this manner another after that yet all these gifts are here here are Paul and Apollos and Cephas here is piping and mourning here are sonnes of thunder and sonnes of consolation For indiuiduall indowments of wit eloquence fauour credit and health what is there left almost to pray for besides continuance and increase with continuance and increase of our thankfulnesse Quid voueat tenero nutricula maius alumno Hora◠Quà m sapere fari vt possit quae sentiat vtque Gratia fama valetudo
blendings and other sharking sophistications Amos 8. which The Lord hath sworne by the excellency of Iacob neuer to forget so must it be maintained by no dribblets but by the pound vnder some great countenance of authority There a small booty will not serue the turne Mice indeed may be nibblers and liue when the Cat that keeps them proues to be of an eating kinde twentie to one shee deuoures more at one bit then the poore Mouse would haue done at twentie So great men turning theeues can be satisfied with no lesse then a man and his heritage especially when greatnes is accompanied with an ambitious desire of growing yet greater 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Serpent must eate a Serpent before it can bee a Dragon You may see the heads of Iacob in the third of Micah flaying and chopping and dressing the people as in a day of slaughter and the gouernours of Ierusalem in Zeph. rauenously deuouring them raw like wolues in the euening and are these no theeues no they be murtherers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 betwixt life and liuing there is no such wide difference cut but the poore mans purse hee thinkes you cut his throat and the throat of all his children Such an vnmercifull cut-throat is oppression a sinne which the poore man cannot commit though he would Saint Iames accounts it the rich mans peculiar Iam. 2.6 Doe not the rich men oppresse you by tyrannie doe they not drawe you before iudgement seates yet of all men they can plead in themselues no necessitie Men doe not despise a thiefe faith Salomon Prou. 6. when hee stealeth to satisfie his soule because he is hungrie They can plead in others no superfluity for they robbe the poore Now hee that oppresseth the poore reproueth him that made him Let not then the motion sound harsh in great mens eares that they would not disdaine the commendation of no theeues O that they would strip themselues of that pompe and state wherewith iniustice hath clothed them but for one moment and consider if they were to beginne the world how many poorer then themselues would feare to bee bound for their truth and honestie I would to GOD they would search their owne hearts and ransacke their owne consciences and make a strickt inquisition after euery suspected passage of their liues At this instant I hold it not impossible that some man in his owne bosome may discouer and attach a thiefe Tell mee beloued do you not find him full of fetches pretences excuses Beleeue him not spare him not fauour him not shriue him to the proof arraign him condemne him punish him punish him in the body by fasting mortification punish him in the soule by repentance and contrition punish him in the purse by works of charity and restitution Thus if you would iudge your selues the Lord would not iudge you the flying Booke would passe by your house In conclusion vnto young and old against this crying sinne of all that I haue read I giue but two retentiue admonitions the first that old men cease to load themselues with long prouision for so short a iourney bewaring of couetousnesse which is the root of all euill They that will bee rich fall into diuers temptations Diues qui fieri vult cito vult fieri right or wrong hooke or crooke all is fish that comes to the net though it be perhaps a Serpent Hee that makes haste to be rich shall not be innocent The last that young men dull not their quicke and actiue spirits for want of exercise in some vocation taking heed of idlenesse for this is the common progresse Idlenesse brings pouerty Necessity comes vpon the sluggard like an armed man Prou. 24. Prou. 30. Pouerty brings theeuery Feed me with food conuenient for mee saith Agur lest I bee poore and steale and what I pray you followeth Lest I be poore and steale and take the Name of my God in vaine Stealing must bee couered and concealed with swearing the sinne next to bee surprised by the flying Booke next to be handled It shall enter into the house of the thiefe and into the house of him that falsely sweareth by my Name Of those three conditions prescribed for an oath in the fourth of Ieremie Thou shalt sweare The Lord liueth in truth in iudgement and in righteousnes a defect of the foremost alone may be properly termed Periurie For since the end doth determine natures in morality that which precisely crosseth the end must needes be the vertuous actions directest opposite Now nothing ouerthroweth the scope and purpose of an oath which in the sixth to the Hebrewes is a confirmation more then the sinne of false swearing whether it testifie falsely of things past or present as in an oath assertorie or vndertake things de iure also de facto possible without performance as in an oath promissorie No sooner can your senses exercised in the Scripture apprehend the notion of a flying Booke but you renew the remembrance of that in the third of Malachy where the Lord threatneth he will bee a swift witnesse amongst the rest against false swearers and can you maruaile that they become sharers in the curses and plagues of this Booke maruaile rather that they doe not ingrosse the whole The proud merit of their prodigious profanesse seemes to scorne any proportioÌ„ vnder a ful volume of punishments If a simple he bee so passing cuill that it can bee made good by no circumstance no not by the glorie of God in the conuersion of a world Will you make a lie for him as one lieth for a man Iob. 13. All iudgements created are too narrow to conceiue the guilt of Periurie forasmuch as therein besides the wrong of our neighbour who can haue no commerce with vs if there bee no truth and trust in vs by making GOD himselfe an Idoll ignorant of truth or like the father of lies in the eight of Iohn a Patrone of fraud and falshood wee send him vp a desperate challenge of impudent and Atheisticall defiance Aske in this case of Histories from the Booke that flyeth heere to the Booke that lieth anie where in presse whether euer any dared this Gyant without their owne notorious destruction When Vladislaus King of Hungarie contrarie to his solemne oath falsified at the earnest instance of two Cardinals set vpon Amurah the Turke vnawares he perceiuing his soldiers falling and victorie flying away from his side pul'd a copie of the Truce out of his bosome and lifting his eyes towards heauen bee vttered some such wordes as these O Iesus Christ loe these are the leagues which thy sâ—ruants haue confirmed by thy Name and yet haue violated If thou bee a God as they say thou art shew thy selfe in this thine and mine iniurie by plaguing these forsworne miscreants Scarce had hee ended this strange petition but the successe of the Christians battell turned the King was slaine his army discomfited and his people pitifully butchered